Unemployed not amused by unfilled jobs

Response from the jobless to Monday's column ("Many good jobs in Central Florida go unfilled") was polite but pointed, tinged with anger and hit-the-wall frustration.

"As someone who has been job hunting for 10 months and sent out about 500 resumes, it comes with quite a sting to see this article," wrote Aleic Grant, 44. "It angers me to no end to hear companies complain about not being able to fill positions. If you don't exactly match the qualifications to a 'T' you never hear from them.

"If a candidate doesn't quite match the need but still ticks off a lot of boxes, then train the person to get them up to par. Companies used to do that back in the good old days. Is it that much of an economic hardship to train someone who might stay at the job instead of having it unfilled for months?"

"Mike," 35, who asked to remain anonymous because his words "could come back to harm me big time" in his search for employment in marketing and high tech, echoed Grant but was even more blunt.

"Recruiters suck. I don't think I'm the best candidate in the world, but I'm very agile, smart and have a lot of varied interests that help me to frame work and situations differently than other people. I've been in the Florida job market since May 2000 and have never once been asked to lunch by a recruiter to better understand me, my skills and interests."

Embedded between the lines of both men's comments is a harsh reality: With more qualified — and over-qualified — candidates than available jobs, it's an employers' market.

"There is an impression that there are thousands of unemployed people out there who need jobs, so companies may believe they do not need to actually recruit and increase their pay range when they do not have to," Chuck Simikian, director of human resources at Nickelodeon Suites Resort, told me recently.

The job market seems beset by a perfect storm of non-mutual interests and competing narratives. The company hoping to go cheap is colliding with the trauma of job seekers who still can't quite accept the fact they are no longer worth what they once were on the open market.

"I've received a lot of resumes from people wanting to change careers, people who are overqualified and asking for a lot more money than we have budgeted for the job," said Lauren Volcheff, vice president of market of Turico Holidays, who has been looking since April to fill a senior marketing job that pays in the $50,000 to $65,000 range.

Another reason for companies to back off such candidates is fear of abandonment.

"We get many applicants who are overqualified, and when we take a chance to hire them, they leave when they get a chance to make more money at a higher-level job," Simikian said.

An overlooked cohort among the unemployed are the highly educated but digitally backward.

"I have met many physicians who are not working and will never work again for reasons having to do with a lack of in-depth skills in computer science," wrote a physician who practiced for decades in Volusia County. "The technological revolution has replaced the industrial revolution, and a successful physician — like all professionals who wish to succeed in business — must have a professional degree, an MBA, and a degree in computer science. Those who lack those credentials are doomed to failure. I know. I am one of those people."

Despite his pessimism, the physician continues to attend conferences and maintain his certification in hopes of practicing again.

"Mike," citing "abysmal" salaries and workplaces where "no one has taken time to know me and figure out how best to utilize me," is not waiting around.